The pastor at our church serves on the board of Azusa Pacific University in California. They just acquired a small collection of the Dead Sea Scrolls. The pastor asked the university if our church could host them for a month before they were to go on exhibit at the university, and they said yes!!
The Dead Sea Scrolls are a collection of about 900 documents, including texts from the Hebrew Bible, discovered between 1947 and 1956 in caves on the northwest shore of the Dead Sea in Israel.
The texts are of great religious and historical significance, as they include the oldest known surviving copies of Biblical and extra-biblical documents and preserve evidence.
They are written in Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek, mostly on parchment, but with some written on papyrus. These manuscripts generally date between 150 BCE and 70 CE.
We were not allowed to take any pictures, but got to see a few small fragments of the actual Dead Sea Scrolls. We also got to see :
(From Bayside’s website:)
From the Dead Sea Scrolls to the Bible in America is one of only a handful of exhibits of its kind in the United States. This exhibition begins with pictographs scribed into clay tablets, the earliest form of hand-made communication. Parchment scrolls of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Old Testament) and fragments from the Dead Sea Scrolls also bring ancient history to life. Following these artifacts, you’ll be introduced to rare manuscript Bible leaves and choral sheets. You’ll also view the Bible in a new light as you experience the Gutenberg Bible firsthand, the very first book ever printed. We’ll then take you throughout history and bring you to the Bible that we possess today. This history includes the King James Bible, the Eliot Indian Bible, the “Bible of the Revolution,” and the Bible that flew to the moon on Apollo 14. We will also feature several archaeological artifacts throughout the exhibit that highlight life in the region during the times the scrolls were written and Bibles printed.
After a lunch of yummy potluck leftovers, the guys played guitar, while the girls took the boys on a walk/bike ride at a nearby park. This park has a wonderful trail that connects two neighborhood parks.
We hung out by the pool and soaked up some more sun/ hot tub. The kids played in the pool (Brrrr….) and we capped off a wonderful day with a lip smackin’ dinner at Lucille’s BBQ!
Here we are getting ready to dive into some ‘gator’ (at least that’s what we told the boys…they are so adventurous!)
Scott and Liann
Liann and Me
